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Summary:


In what may be a first in American history, President Trump just expanded the presidential pardon power to include corporations.

Corporations are artificial legal fictions designed to maximize shareholder wealth. Nonetheless, they can theoretically commit crimes and be indicted for them. According to a 1999 memorandum from the Justice Department, the “important public benefits” of prosecuting corporations include “deterrence on a massive scale,” particularly for “crimes that carry with them a substantial risk of public harm,” such as “financial frauds.”

Such public benefits now fall prey to the whims of the president with his pardon of a cryptocurrency company that smacks of political corruption.

On Friday, Trump issued full and unconditional pardons to four individuals and a related cryptocurrency exchange, BitMEX.

BitMEX solicits and takes orders for trades in derivatives tied to the value of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin. Last summer, BitMEX entered a guilty plea in a Manhattan federal court for violating the Bank Secrecy Act for having operated without a legitimate anti-money laundering program. Prior to August 2020, customers could register to trade with BitMEX anonymously, providing only verified email addresses. The latest in politics and policy. Direct to your inbox. Sign up for the Opinion newsletter

On Jan. 15, 2025, BitMEX was criminally fined $100 million in connection with its guilty plea, which was on top of $130 million in civil penalties previously imposed by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission. At sentencing, the judge noted that BitMEX, which is incorporated in the Seychelles, had claimed not to operate in the U.S. for several years even though U.S. customers comprised a large share of its business.


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[-] MyMotherIsAHamster@lemmy.ca 220 points 1 year ago

The grift is real, in plain sight - and the MAGAts still think he cares about them 🤣

[-] Snowclone@lemmy.world 57 points 1 year ago

They still think he's going to hunt down and stop all the Democrat run baby sex trafficking pizza kitchens.

[-] BrokenGlepnir@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago

They think he already has, and the only thing keeping them from popping back up into existence is him sitting on the throne.

[-] MyMotherIsAHamster@lemmy.ca 21 points 1 year ago

Oh my god, I had managed to completely forget about the pedophile pizzeria shit - tabarnak, there's just too much crazy to keep track of.

[-] fubo@lemmy.world 30 points 1 year ago

The conspiracy theory was that child-molesters ran the government. To fix it, they elected child-molesters to run the government.

[-] miguel@fedia.io 6 points 1 year ago

I've always assumed that was the whole point

[-] ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one 3 points 1 year ago

tabarnak

Got to hand it to the Québécois. Some of their profanity is just so much fun to say.

[-] CalipherJones@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

As he flies around in Epstein's jet.

So Trump starts mining company for Bitcoin as they announced. Then once they have a decent amount they start investing all the gold from Fort Knox into Bitcoin as previously stated by the white House to inflate prices. Then uses the money for illegal bribes with anonymous accounts? Something like that I assume

this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2025
448 points (99.6% liked)

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